This day in history - Oct. 12

•In 1933, bank robber John Dillinger escaped from jail in Allen County, Ohio, with the help of his gang, who killed the sheriff.

Today is Friday, Oct. 12, the 286th day of 2012. There are 80 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Oct. 12, 1962, the devastating Columbus Day Storm, also known as the “Big Blow,” struck the Pacific Northwest, resulting in some 50 deaths.

On this date:

•In 1492 (according to the Old Style calendar), Christopher Columbus arrived with his expedition in the present-day Bahamas.

•In 1810, the German festival Oktoberfest was first held in Munich to celebrate the wedding of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.

•In 1870, Gen. Robert E. Lee died in Lexington, Va., at age 63.

•In 1915, English nurse Edith Cavell was executed by the Germans in occupied Belgium during World War I.

•In 1942, Attorney General Francis Biddle announced during a Columbus Day celebration at Carnegie Hall in New York that Italian nationals in the United States would no longer be considered enemy aliens.

•In 1971, the rock opera “Jesus Christ Superstar” opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on Broadway.

•In 1986, the superpower meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, ended in stalemate, with President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev unable to agree on arms control or a date for a full-fledged summit in the United States.

•In 1997, singer John Denver was killed in the crash of his privately built aircraft in Monterey Bay, Calif.; he was 53.

Ten years ago: Bombs blamed on al-Qaida-linked militants destroyed a nightclub on the Indonesian island of Bali, killing 202 people, including 88 Australians and seven Americans.

Five years ago: Former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the Nobel Peace Prize for sounding the alarm over global warming. A fiery 34-vehicle pileup at a freeway tunnel in Santa Clarita, Calif., left three people dead. A jury in Panama City, Fla., acquitted seven former juvenile boot camp guards and a nurse in the death of Martin Lee Anderson, a black teenager.

One year ago: A Nigerian al-Qaida operative pleaded guilty to trying to bring down a jetliner with a bomb in his underwear; Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab defiantly told a federal judge in Detroit that he acted in retaliation for the killing of Muslims worldwide.